Sesame Touch Free Smartphone For The Differently-Abled

Walking down the street now-a-days gives us scenes with heads tilted down and fingers occupied. Everyone is busy with their smartphones. Companies tout about their smooth capacitive touchscreens and GUI designed for hassle free use. But one of the biggest frustrations for the disabled community is the technology being inept for them to use it. Addressing these difficulties, an Israel based company, Sesame Enable has designed a touch-free smartphone for the differently-abled community.

Giora Livne, one of the co-founders, himself a quadriplegic conceptualized this device. Giora Liven said that he got inspiration of this device from a TV demonstration for a game controlled by head movements. The Sesame Enable phone is enabled to cater people with various impediments and even those who are diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy, Spinal Cord Injuries, ALS and Multiple Sclerosis. Gesture recognition has been the key to develop a touch-free phone. Sesame software lets a user access & operate the smartphone entirely through voice control and head movements, without a need of any customized hardware to be attached.

The package of Sesame powered phone comes with a Google Nexus 5 phone enabled with a software layer, stereo earbuds and USB cables. This $1000 package has recently won the Verizon Powerful Answer’s Award and is funded with Indiegogo. The device is equipped with an advanced computer vision algorithm using the front-facing camera and voice command algorithms allow a user to navigate and control cursor on smartphone screen. The cursor works like a virtual finger, letting users work on it like a regular smartphone. Check this space for a demonstration video of the device. The company is set to give 30 Sesame smartphones to people in need for no charge.

Earlier, this concept of hands-free operation was seen in Samsung’s Galaxy S4 smartphone, which was launched back in 2013. However, this feature had many nooks and corners to be worked upon. Users reported that the feature functioned on a satisfactory note only when the phone received enough exposure to light. Also Apple has been reported to obtain a patent for similar technology. However, Sesame Enable claims that their technology is far more improved and gives out satisfactory results in varied conditions. Onset of this device has grabbed a lot of applause from all around. It will interesting to see other tech giants to come up with similar mechanisms to control smartphones.